Archive for February 19th, 2012

The lightening , which accompanies the cold, wind and rain, is the only thing lighting up the Gaza skyline , that and the nightly airstrikes by Israel . The fuel , supposedly coming from Egypt today , failed to show up. Although Rafah links Egypt to Gaza, this is not the official route or so they say , ( Rafah is to be used for humanitarian aid only, but basic needs for water, light , heat etc is not humanitarian? ) so a padlock on a gate means an alternative route must be found….. While some people play politics and cover necessity with red tape, the ordinary families of Gaza huddle around candles and oil lamps or they sparingly run noisy , expensive generators .

Gaza , part of the middle east, the oil rich region of the world suffers , and WHY? not because of a natural disaster but because somebody somewhere decides this is how some people should live……………... How dare they??

Gaza is allocated 4 hours of electricity a day, and even this is intermittent. The lack of power means not just cold and dark, it means lack of clean fresh water as the pumps can not work, it means lack of fresh fish as the larger boats need fuel , Petrol stations have been shut for a week now, Hospitals are in grave danger with the risk of death for many patients an almost certain consequence.

Mr. Ashraf al-Qidra, Spokesman of the Ministry of Health, emphasized that more than 80% of patients in the Gaza Strip are threatened by a deterioration of their health conditions due to the power outages and the decreasing strategic stock of fuel required for the operation of electricity generators at hospitals and health care facilities.

He further warned of a health disaster that may directly affect all patients in vital departments of hospitals whose treatment depend on the availability of electricity supplies, especially prematurely born infants in incubators, who are currently more than 100. Also at risk are more than 400 patients suffering from renal failure, including 15 children, who need dialysis twice or three times a week; and 66 patients who are currently placed in intensive care units.

Al-Qidra indicated that 39 operation rooms, in addition to emergency and reception departments, gynaecology departments, laboratories, and radiology departments in all hospitals of the Gaza Strip will become completely paralyzed if the crisis does not come to an end.

We have watched and waited too long, while Governments of the world have stood idly by…………what we are doing , is not enough……… We call on everybody to phone their departments of foreign affairs, ask for the middle east section, and ask for an update on the fuel crisis in Gaza . demand to know what is being done………If you phone once a day, every day, it may make a difference to a lot of people’s live’s in Gaza……..